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Yes but can everyone involved - both the original archeologists who excavated them and the people who bought them - claim ancestry from whatever ancient society
by tbrownaw 2y ago
Yes but can everyone involved - both the original archeologists who excavated them and the people who bought them - claim ancestry from whatever ancient society made them, or at least the oldest traceable group to have resided on that land? AIUI that is how "stolen" tends to be construed for archaeological things these days.
- graemep 2y agoThat idea makes sense in an American context where there is a clear divide between indigenous and more recent groups. The same is true of some other places like Australia. In Eurasia and Africa this does not work. "The oldest traceable group" may be many invasions, conquests and mass migrations after the things were made. The current residents or earliest traceable group may well have enslaved, oppressed, or killed the group who made the things. In many, many cases they would have erased the culture that made them. In the case of these tablets there is no one who can meaningfully claim to be an Akkadian.